carolina vs State. From 9 - 9 to 43 - 11 with a couple minutes left in the first half. Ugh!
First half ends 43 - 13 carolina up.
carolina vs State. From 9 - 9 to 43 - 11 with a couple minutes left in the first half. Ugh!
First half ends 43 - 13 carolina up.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com
Bilas: "I have not seen a performance as embarrassing as that one all year long."
I would second that, except I would say that was one of the most embarrassing halves ever.
Some Duke fans complain about the team's scoring droughts- well you have not seen a drought unless you witnessed what happened today by State. What was almost impossible to believe is that in all that action in 12 minutes where state score 1 bucket- State never went to the line- to slow things down and try to regain poise. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was an embarrassing performance for them. When the wheels fell off they had no-one to turn to that would get the back on track. But the scary part is that Carolina did have something to do with it. They forced state to play much faster than they are used to and pressure very well. Fortunately Duke will have a few games under their belts before they face them.
Wasn't State down by like twenty at the half in the tournament finals? Not to say they are going to win, they did make it close last year.
Ordinarily if UNC is beating a team comfortably, I just find something else to watch. But that half was hypnotic, in a macabre way. I just kept watching to see how bad it could actually get for State.
From the DBR ACC Roundup on this game:
"It should be a great game, and one thing that Sidney Lowe may have learned from Jim Valvano is how to pump emotions, or at least the emotions that surround big games (he may have a way to go in mastering the more mundane emotions)."
Couldn't be more wrong. It is a terrible game and State looks incredibly uninspired and without emotion. Pathetic.
Does Lowe have the jacket from last year on? Maybe that is what is missing?
Chris Corchiani was on the radio yesterday with David Glenn on 850thebuzz. He commented that for the big games vs. Duke and carolina, Valvano didn't think big speeches were needed, just saying something like "let's go get these guys". It was for other games that he gave emotional speeches to pump up his guys.
Something for State fans to start pondering: was today's drubbing due to lack of playing talent, lack of coaching talent, both or just an anomalous aberration? I think it is a combination of 1 and 4, and being without their starting point guard didn't help.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com
The game which just ended was not like any previous NCSU - UNC game I can remember. I was struck by the flat emotions displayed by the team and by Sydney Lowe. Never seen Sydney so flat... Jay Bilas commented that he thought that there was some sort of problem within the team, that they didn't seem to like each other very much... lack of trust.
I went to the game - first time I've seen NCSU this year. Costner looked overweight, sluggish and unhappy. He really appeared to sulk and have a bad attitude. Not sure what is going on there.
Besides that, NCSU has no quality point guard play and got pushed into bad situations and bad passes, even with UNC's mediocre D.
UNC looked fine but they really didnt need to play hard today, so they were on cruise control for the most part.
I really hate Carolina fans.
For those of you who rag on Greg Paulus, State is what a team looks like when they really don't have a point guard.
And yes, there do seem to be some co-existence problems. I freely confess that I thought Costner had All-America potential before the start of the season but he looks like he would rather be anywhere else right now.
Still, we've all seen teams that have had their doors blown off and come back to thrive. But Lowe is going to have to do one heck of coaching job to turn this ship around.
You guys are so lost. Don't you know NC State is going to go undefeated the rest of the year? Fells predicted they would only have four losses all year, and this was their fourth.
First and foremost, I would like to state that there is no excuse for a team to play so flat against their biggest rival. State should be ashamed.
Still.....
That has got to be a hard situation at NCSU in the post, chemistry wise. Costner and McCauley ended the year on an upswing. They were playing well and had some big games. By all rights, they should have been looking toward this year thinking that they were going to be BMOCs. I bet each one thought they would be THE focal point of the O, but were willing to coexist.
Instead, an incoming frosh steals the headlines, PT, and SPG. The kicker is that the kid, JJ Hickson, is better than either McCauley or Costner. Significantly better. Bigger, faster, stronger, better jumper, etc. So the two returnees go from being ascendant stars to sidekicks.
I am not saying that they are handling it well. They most definitely are not handling it well. I am just saying that is a hard situation for anyone. Honestly, I don't recall ever seeing such a situation at Duke, but I am too young to remember K's early classes. Still, I don't think any holdovers were expecting to be stars only to be supplanted. I doubt I would handle that well, and, as it has been stated on this board repeatedly, these are college kids we are talking about.
Also, some people did see this comming. I thought Atsur would be a huge loss. This team needs a steadying influence at the PG, desparately. That ain't happening. This team might actually benefit from losing its best player, when Hickson goes pro this year. Not anything on him necessarily, but the team doesn't seem to be adjusting to him well.
The preceeding should not be taken to mean that one and dones are poison to chemistry and should be avoided. It is up to a coach to integrate superior talents and make sure EVERYONE deals with it. Lowe is an example of how failing to do this can kill a team.
Patrick Yates
Haha, I was watching the game thinking the exact same thing. I remember the Doherty days when they used to boo their own team. Apparently, all is now well in Tar Heel land.
UNC is clearly a much better team than NC State but I honestly think the Wolfpack's performance was an isolated incident. I say that because no legitimate D-1 team in a BCS conference misses as many layups and uncontested shots as NC State did today. With each missed shot, you could just see their team become increasingly deflated as both teams knew NC State had to make those shots to have any chance of winning.
While it's easy to question Sidney Lowe's coaching ability, you have to remember that every time he's had a healthy point guard, they've won pretty consistently. Atsur missed a good chunk of last year and the PG they brought in this year is now out for the year due to injury. No team can succeed on a regular basis without consistent point guard play. Duke fans saw that first-hand last year.
I think the most concerning part about Lowe is his inability to integrate JJ Hickson into the offense. With the addition of Hickson have come struggles for a Ben McAuley-Brandon Costner combo that was very impressive towards the end of last season. Again, it's hard to integrate a player like Hickson into the offense with no real Point Guard, but it's something they'll have to figure out. What sucks is that it looks like Hickson is a one-and-done player, so it almost seems like he'll set the program back a year.
I think that there are two teams that UNC will truly "run it up." Duke, and NCSU. These are UNC's two big rivalry games, and the fans, ie influential alums, want to paste both of these schools.
As much as UNC hates Duke, the alums actually want to destroy NCSU more than Duke, just because the UNC alums get to see NCSU alums a work on monday, or out in the community, etc. It isn't really something we Devils experience, because of our far flung alumni base. But here in the state, crushing another triangle team is a big thing, especially for the state schools.
I gotta think Roy has it in for Duke and UNC, and will run it up, or face the ire, or at least the reduced donations, of a peeved base. Just getting rivalry wins is big. Blowouts are just cherry.
Patrick Yates
The deep seated feelings Carolina folk may have for NC State go back at least to the early conference (Southern then ACC) dominance State enjoyed while Everett Case was their coach.
In many ways, Coach Case brought big time college basketball to North Carolina. For instance, I think I remember that he started the custom or tradition of cutting down nets after big wins. Having the winner of the conference tournament earn the only conference bid in the NCAA tournament was his idea. He recruited many good players over the years including some fellow Hoosiers who became his assistant coaches. The one most important to us was Vic Bubas.
I am agreeing with you in part, but I'm adding some of the historical roots of the animosity between Carolina and NC State as being pretty important, too. As is the case with most longtime rivalries, the friction goes 'way back and is built on many incidents which are passed on like folk lore, fueling the rivalry.
Case certainly spiced up the rivalry and prompted UNC to go after someone who could beat the Old Gray Fox.
But the rivalry goes back to the beginning of time, or at least the Morrill Land Grant Act. State-Carolina is no different and no stronger than Clemson-South Carolina, Virginia-Virginia Tech, Auburn-Alabama, Texas-Texas A&M, Mississippi-Mississippi State, and others. Lots of inherent conflicts of class and culture in these rivalries.